C20 Indonesian Presidency: Civil 20 Demands for G20 Leaders to Act against COVID-19 and the War Crisis

Civil 20 (C20) under the G20 Indonesia Presidency has officially started on 7-8 March 2022 with a public event held in a hybrid format live and virtually from Nusa Dua Bali, Indonesia. "The theme of the kick-off meeting is C20 Indonesia: Listening to the World" which aims to emphasize the demands of the C20 on G20 leaders in listening to the needs of civil society around the world and developing more inclusive and adaptive policies after the COVID-19 pandemic, said Ah Maftuchan, Sherpa C20 Presidency of Indonesia.

C20 not only represents the voice of civil society in the G20 countries, but also globally, including in the southern hemisphere. "Given Indonesia's commitment to this year's G20 on collaboration and cooperation as the key to produce solutions to combat many of the world's problems, C20 believes that the goal of "Recover Stronger, Recover Together" can only be achieved if this collaboration involves the participation of countries that share the same vision. to bounce back from the pandemic era evenly, together with input and collaboration with civil society," said Sugeng Bahagijo, Chair of the Indonesian Presidential C20.

The event brought together more than 100 civil society organizations (CSOs) around the world and introduced its seven thematic groups namely (i) Vaccine Access and Global Health, (ii) Gender Equality, (iii) Taxation and Sustainable Finance, (iv) Environment, Justice Climate and Energy Transition, (v) SDGs and Humanity, (vi) Education, Digitization, and Citizenship Space, and (vii) Anti-Corruption.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted global development and affected millions of people, especially those in developing countries. With the virus variants constantly mutating, as of 3 February 2022 only 11% of the population on the African continent had been fully vaccinated, while half of European countries had achieved vaccination rates of over 85% and had started booster injections. . “With inequality in access to vaccines between countries, the C20 asks the G20 to ensure equal distribution of vaccinations throughout the world. C20 urges G20 countries to distribute vaccines to developing and poor countries and encourage vaccine production in Indonesia. developing and poor countries and is committed to targeting the vaccination of at least 90% of the world's citizens by the end of 2022," added Sugeng Bahagijo.

The World Bank states that economic growth is recovering in rich countries where the majority of the top 20% live, while the same is not true in low- and middle-income countries, where most of the bottom 20% live. The international organization also noted that if no action is taken to reduce this inequality, poverty levels will not return to pre-crisis levels even by 2030. “The C20 calls on the G20 to push for changes in the world's tax architecture that is more equitable. On the first day of the Kick-Off meeting, the C20 asked the G20 to push for a consensus on a minimum 25% corporate tax rate and apply globally. The C20 also asks the G20 to encourage the realization of the commitment of developed countries to share 0,7% of their Gross National Income to fund international development cooperation to help developing and poor countries during the difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic," added Ah Maftuchan, Sherpa C20. Indonesian Presidency.

This portrait of clear inequality should be enough trigger for people in power to start listening to the world and projecting post-pandemic recovery plans into the “real” state of life, people and the planet. The perspectives of communities and civil society are very important in assessing this challenging period, as they not only play an important role in the mitigation and dissipation of social problems related to the pandemic, but also act as key actors in supporting the G20 agenda to address this. disaster era.

The C20 emphasized that while the G20 can be a useful place to discuss issues and act on them, legitimate global governance, and norm setting, must involve all people and countries equally. It must remain anchored in multilateral bodies involving all countries, including and especially those based on the United Nations.

On the Mid-Pandemic Human Crisis:

In this difficult time of conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic affecting civilians and innocent people, C20 expresses its solidarity with the people affected, including children, women, the elderly, disabled and vulnerable people who affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and called on all members of the G20 and the European Union to facilitate a peaceful settlement between neighboring countries in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, and to be more active and seek to encourage and invite all members to discuss conflict resolution at the G20 sessions. C20 also invites CSOs around the world to speak up to stop war and show solidarity with people who are victims of war or conflict around the world.

The C20 also demands that governments and authorities in conflict areas such as Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Palestine comply with Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and ensure that all individuals seeking protection, regardless of nationality, have their identity. and gender, have access to equitable, effective and urgent humanitarian assistance. The crisis will derail economic recovery around the world.

In Celebrating International Women's Day:

The impact of a crisis is never gender neutral, neither is the impact of COVID-19 and conflicts around the world. During these situations, women and girls are usually the most affected socially and economically. Joining the International Women's Day campaign, on 8 March 2022 at the Working Group on Gender Equality Side Events, members highlighted the important role of breaking gender bias.

Outdated norms and biases such as the concept that women should do most of the care work in a household can create butterfly effects such as the importance of the unemployment rate between women and men. “Gender equality underscores the importance of accelerating efforts to support gender mainstreaming and social inclusion in both national and international contexts and several recommendations on economic empowerment of women and marginalized groups. C20 demands that the G20 build strong Policy and Service Mechanisms for gender-based violence, particularly sexual violence, including the provision of quality, affordable and comprehensive reproductive health facilities and services”, added Mike Verawati, Coordinator of the Gender Equality Working Group of the Indonesian Presidency of C20.

The Working Group on Education, Digitization and Civil Space also highlighted the importance of mainstreaming the rights of children and youth into the G20 priorities. Issues of gender-based violence related to child marriage, and issues of child protection as millions of schools are closed, thus impacting online learning needs that are vulnerable to cyber bullying, online pornography, prostitution or trafficking for sexual purposes, are all discussed in side events . The voices of children and youth, including young women and young women, as well as persons with disabilities and marginalized groups, must be heard carefully, and side events facilitate young women to speak up. With protracted pandemics, conflicts and wars, and the climate crisis, we must ensure the rights of children and youth are mainstreamed into G20 priorities. They are our future.

As stated in the C20 Principles, the C20 will be the supervisor and supporter of the G20 advocacy process. Indonesia's C20 presidency will continue to echo and project the voices of people around the world, demanding the promise of “leaving no one behind” to recover together stronger, which was stated at the start of Indonesia's G20 presidency. Recovery from pandemics and crises requires an integration and approach to any policy that impacts society. Communities including marginalized and vulnerable people must be the architects of development and, at the same time, the beneficiaries of any initiative to rebuild “a stronger collective recovery and recovery” for a better world.*

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Key Messages and Recommendations from the C20 Working Group

1. Vaccine Access and Global Health

This working group highlighted the need for a commitment to global cooperation and solidarity as well as support for the proposed TRIPS waiver to accelerate access to the COVID-19 vaccine worldwide. The group also recommended G20 leaders to optimize state funding during the pandemic for health services for key and vulnerable populations and high-risk groups (people with comorbidities).

In addition, the Working Group will focus on sustainable financing of health – including financing of global health institutions, global health architecture, universal health coverage – including one health and the digitization of health – all through gender transformative approaches and human rights.

2. Gender Equality

The C20 Working Group on gender equality underlined the importance of accelerating efforts to support gender mainstreaming and social inclusion in both national and international contexts and recommendations on the economic empowerment of women and marginalized groups. This group also demands that the government establish strong Policies and Service Mechanisms for gender-based violence, particularly sexual violence, including the provision of quality, affordable and complete reproductive health facilities and services.

3. Sustainable Taxation and Finance

This Working Group focuses on recommendations to implement large-scale investments in developing countries to finance COVID-19 programs and meet climate mitigation goals under SDGs 2030 and the Paris Agreement 2050 through increasing tax revenues, especially those related to the digital economy which contributes 4%- 5% of world GDP and international cooperation in a more inclusive international tax commission. The Covid-15,5 pandemic also presents momentum to accelerate global tax reform. The G19 countries' agreement on a 7% global minimum corporate tax is a “rich country deal” and does not effectively address profit transfer and tax avoidance practices by multinational corporations. The C15 asks the G20 to push for a global minimum corporate tax of 20%.

4. Environment, Climate Justice and Energy Transition

The Working Group highlights the strong climate ambitions and energy transition that will accelerate the process of achieving Indonesia's Vision and greening the economic recovery. Several important actions that need attention, such as encouraging a green economy and sustainable financing after the Covid-19 recovery; stop the use of coal because of its negative impact on environmental and economic development; enforce carbon tax regulations that clearly support emission reductions; and accelerate gender and social inclusion as a way to support a just transition to achieving climate resilience.

5. SDGs and Humanity

The Working Group noted the important role of G20 countries in strengthening humanitarian development relationships by establishing targeting strategies that address the urgent needs and long-term development goals of crisis-affected populations, by adopting inclusive and adaptive social protection approaches that are responsive to global citizens who are affected by the crisis. susceptible. G20 members are also encouraged to revise the architecture of the global economy by reducing remittance costs that can contribute to poverty alleviation and improving the quality of human development.

6. Education, Digitization, Civil Space

This working group highlighted the importance of access to quality inclusive and safe education, where information and knowledge must be guaranteed, in line with strengthening infrastructure including digital technology and other alternatives, ensuring data security and protection, that all must be inclusive and secure. , including for marginalized groups of children and youth. The government also needs to strengthen global citizenship education by promoting the values ​​of empathy for others to eliminate discrimination, intolerance, violence and harassment that occur in schools and at home. Thus, protecting civic space, for better education and digitalization justice is a must.

The working group will also address all of the roles that the digitization process plays and its consequences, from simply the transition to e-commerce and new economic monopolies, from fake news to the impact on citizenship and politics, with particular attention to the responsibility of politics in providing rules for the process. this.

7. Anti-Corruption

This working group addressed the negative impact of corruption on economic growth and development, private sector integrity, business competition climate, distortion of resource allocation, and disruption of public trust and the rule of law. One of the main issues highlighted is the importance of Beneficial Ownership Transparency to prevent and detect various criminal acts, such as corruption, money laundering and terrorism financing, as well as tax crimes.

Sumber: Civil 20 Indonesia

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